Yeah, well, it's like I'm just rushing a little bit so

Thank you for coming for the session My name is Marcos Lemma as she explained so maybe I'll tell a little bit about myself first We came here like to for the GIG the global innovation gathering. It's a global gathering for many HABs

Around the world especially focusing on AfriLabs which is the network of HABs in Africa It started some some time the network started like two years ago But it's really growing from from five to seven to twenty more than that right now. Actually. We have around 30 HABs So basically like I am representing one of the HABs. It's called ISADDIS

It's based in Ethiopia. So I am one of the co-founder of this HAB We are running like this innovation spaces in in the HADDIS But now that also network really growing so much like we have in Cairo now in Alexandria Even in Germany in Weimar, so it's really a growing network network of HABs

but today I'm not talking about that. But rather I'm telling you a story about what's happening like in two Ethiopian villages So some year back the American visionary guy Nicolas Negroponte a lot of people know him from the MIT media lab

And also one laptop per child project afterwards a lot of people a lot of people talk about it, you know, it's always He's becoming a media attention because a lot of people actually think criticizing his method of working on Technology on the other hand a lot of people also appreciate what he's doing So with him and his team like in MIT

And Tuftus University from from Cambridge We actually trying to do a kind of a research project so it's very very simple idea So we are assuming that if we if the kids can teach themselves using technology How to read they can also teach themselves like how how to do all the other education

So basically without teacher they can teach themselves. So We call it like technology as a teacher the assumption is that like Kids from anywhere in the world, even though they never been exposed to any kind of formal or informal kind of education

Technology can really help them to to learn by themselves So we selected these two areas 1g and 1g tape by name. It's completely Far from everything the kids probably know about alphabets from money knots or

Maybe like some plastic bottles Tozing around but basically like there is no any education. There is no electricity. There is no mobile network in that area So we chose like this to completely Completely outside the world villages in Ethiopia and we gave them tablets With all the apps installed in it

And then we just wait for them just to see I mean, we didn't even show them where the power button is or What actually they are dealing with, you know, just very experimental so After after seven minutes the first kid in one of the sites actually he managed to find the power button

So he he managed to power up And then of course like one person one kids know means everybody knows it because they really share a lot of information each other But that's really like it was really already amazing because we we thought maybe they will figure out what it is like in a day or two

But it's only took them like like seven minutes to figure out actually the power button which is Motorola tablet So it's really hidden like behind a tablet But after that like in a week, actually, they already Started to like completely know how to function with a tablet So they they really use their fingers like to go from one one side to the other and then they go back and then

They cancel, you know Like they do all these kind of like things what we don't normally assume like People cannot do unless they have a kind of guidance or a manual or kind of that kind of stuff. So And then after after a week, they already start to play play video, right?

Because it's and then they they also wait until the video finishes or the music they just start to listen to it And then and a month they already start to say ABCD. So I mean their their language is not English We are installing like this application in English And then they already start to say ABCD and then try to associate the sound

So now after a year, they are already in the cusp of reading. So basically like they are reading cats and dog and horses They also play with like different Chain games there will be like a video how the kids are working on later on Maybe Geraldine will tell us about that. But there is a video about that. Maybe if you are interested you can you can see that

So we fought the early finding was very amazing. I mean our Our metrics to measure that was very simple. So we collect there is a Application is running at the background. It's called a bg collector It's collect all this information and we just analyze that data like home how much time they spend on the tablets and what?

Kind of activities are doing on the tablet So they spend more than 10 hours in the first few weeks on the tablets really amazing. I mean We are targeting like kids between four between four to ten years old. So basically like a really completely Crazy about the tablets what they have and usually like this kind of place also like really like poverty streak in places

So this is something they also appreciate to have. I mean, this is the most precious thing is they own in their life Yeah, so this is a project we have been doing like now for two sites But we are expanding also other sites to see how they will also react when they learn their own local languages. So basically

When we when we started first, we had a lot of problems When it comes to timestamp something that we never really taught or motorola never thought about this when they designed their products for instance when when our mobile is off, we don't just keep trying to

Put it on right because we know that like it needs to be charged But in this case the kids they don't know so they just keep trying to turn it on And the battery is completely drained which means like the timestamp always go back to the back date when the manufacturing time like 1970 or something So this all created like a lot of problem for us like in the beginning

So we need to like work on GPS and how that can actually be fixed And and and the other thing is also like we are using this normal Mobile applications with ice cream octopus, you know, like they can never really associate this kind of words into their real life and then we we really learn a lot on the process like we want to include and what we should actually include and

We ask them for instance to take a picture of their surroundings what they believe Is right to be included like in the tablet and then we just translate that to inclusion and use it in the end application So it's like it's been a lot of learning processes and we learn also a lot of stuff A lot of psychological stuff a lot of social stuff for instance

They don't have power in their house and when they have the tablets, I mean their house is completely light up, right? so in the night like everybody is Working a little bit late than normally so that also a little affect their life because usually they sleep very early but now they don't sleep early anymore because their house is full of light and

So we learn a lot of like this kind of like small things but very important things which really affect also in urban life So, I mean in long term now, we don't sleep too early anymore, right? So that kind of thing is really technology really affect that kind of part as well But also like makes them a bit more proactive in a way

Yeah, so So far like this is a progress, but we haven't finished The research yet the final outcome will come probably like in 12 months So we know Or we can say confidently kids can learn just using tablets or technology or not

This is something we're gonna see but early findings show very positive outcome so far. Thank you very much I'll be very happy to answer your questions. It's I don't have a presentation Right now, but I could actually show you a lot of pictures and when the kids are working on but the video

I think might be very interesting. Maybe Geraldine if you Thank you so much Marcos So in case any of you want to see what this village looks like and the kids that Marcus just spoke about I'll be showing a rough cut of a film. I made that features this place amongst other places in

Ethiopia in Rwanda in Kenya and in South Africa at 1845 today on stage C And you're welcome to watch that with us and get a visual impression of the things Marcus just spoke about. Thank you

One of the problems with Nicholas Negroponte is sometimes his publicity goes beyond reality and He claimed that the kids in the Washington area, which is a sort of tourist area

It's only it's not that far from Alice, but he claimed they had never seen any print at all But you've in a sense you you've said what he have although incidental But the second claim he made was that the kids hacked Android which wasn't actually true They pressed the reset button twice and the side of the tablet to restore the camera but it the reason I'm asking this is I've been in Africa and gone to these sites and seen them fail time and time again and

What's needed is really objective research and not Negroponte's hyperbole because he's a sales guy He wants to make money on tablets But is there any plans for objective research as opposed to the people who are involved in the project?

Reporting back on it because that in Africa that counts. I think yeah, I mean, thank you for raising that I mean honestly like the story of hacking. It's it's very subjective. I would say I mean, it's how you say it When when we have like this application And we completely blocked the camera version so that the kids don't don't generate a lot of data because the beginning we we found

Out actually like they generated a lot of data that we cannot really control anymore. So we completely blocked the camera version And then but they found actually kind of a backdoor to work around the camera So there is a small application where you can enable the camera for a few seconds and then they found that so it's more like of

Course, I mean the way he presented it. It sounds very You know like very commercial in a way, but but in reality, it's just how we define hacking And I mean if you ask me I would also agree that like there they found a kind of a backdoor to work around the camera But but this is actually like beyond Negroponte or beyond one laptop per child, but this is more scientific

Research so MIT is involving a lot on this and Tuftus University in Georgia University And there are also like a lot of experts behind this to us as this one That's why I say actually like probably like it's we don't make a bold statement about the outcome

But rather the early findings show a lot of positive outcomes so far, which is which is a great thing Do you feel your question answered

Okay, so if there are no more questions I'd like to say thank you Marcus lama for dropping by so quickly. Thank you very much